


Resonance

by Xyriath



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen, Sirens, merfolk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 16:04:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19023292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xyriath/pseuds/Xyriath
Summary: In a world recently exposed to the supernatural, Pidge's life of research has taken on a whole new meaning.When she sets out one evening to record mermaid songs, however, she learns that there's a lot more danger out there than she'd first expected.





	Resonance

“You can’t  _ actually _ read any of that.”

Pidge didn’t even look up, teeth nibbling idly on the stylus between her teeth as coding scrolled past her screen.

“Just because you have the brain capacity of a goldfish, Lance, doesn’t mean that the rest of us do.”

“Goldf—hey, I resent that!  I have at  _ least _ the brain capacity of a shark!”

“Sharks don’t even have brains, do they?” asked Hunk.  “Aren’t they like… ganglions or something?”

Pidge just snorted.  “Those are starfish, Hunk.  Sharks are actually very smart.  They even compare to some mammals.”

“See?” Lance declared triumphantly.  “She said I was smart!”

“No she didn’t,” Shiro and Keith said at the same time, exchanging an amused look a moment later.  Lance sighed melodramatically and flopped down on the towel he’d spread on the rocks.

“Why am I even out here with you losers?” he grumbled.

“Because you wanna see mermaids,” Pidge replied, sing-song, then let out a delighted “Hah!”

The rest of them, even Lance, made an excited noise and clustered around her computer.

“Do you have them?” Shiro breathed, and Pidge turned, grinning at him.  He was probably secretly the biggest nerd of all of them, and he’d been absolutely  _ delighted _ when she’d suggested they go out to the coast and try to get some recordings of the mermaid songs that had been rumored to be heard here.  Since the appearance of mers—and all other sorts of creatures—last year, no one had really made much contact with them, as they seemed to prefer seclusion from and suspicion towards the residents of the land who used the ocean as a dumping ground.

“I think so!” she hissed eagerly.  “I’m picking up on some audio waves…”

And that’s when she heard it.

The melody, haunting and lovely, drifted through the foggy air, and she felt her hands lift the laptop from her lap and set it on a nearby rock.  The song called to her, beckoning, painting images of beautiful women with books of untold knowledge out within the sea…

Her eyes swept over the waves, and as her eyes settled on the beautiful woman’s head lifting from the water, Pidge took a step towards the sea.

“Pidge?” came a voice, male and steady and penetrating the haze of the desire, the  _ need _ that the melody left coursing through her.

Her eyes flicked away, sliding over Hunk, Lance, and Keith, who looked the same as she had just felt moments before, and then to Shiro, who had stepped forward, watching them all with a concerned expression.

Pretty women.  Luring songs. Immune Shiro?

_ Of course. _

“Sirens!” she yelped, eyes wide, fighting the pull despite herself.  She reached out, clapping her hands over Hunk’s ears, and a moment later, Hunk jerked, fumbling to squeeze his palms over Pidge’s ears in turn.

Rationality flooded back through her like a cold stream, and she gasped, turning to face the others, Hunk shuffling along awkwardly with her.

Shiro had followed Pidge’s lead, hands firmly over Keith’s ears, but Keith was facing away from Shiro, looking bewildered.  He twisted, looking around, but not enough to shake free Shiro’s arms (though Pidge privately wasn’t sure if anything would be enough for that).

And Lance—

Lance strode forward, placing his hands together, and making an elegant swan dive into the sea below.

“ _ Lance! _ ” Pidge yelped, she could barely even hear her own voice.  In her peripheral vision, she could see Shiro jerk, like he wanted to go in after him…

But to do so, he’d need to let go of Keith.

The four of them watched, Pidge’s mind calculating frantically.  How long could they resist the call? What if they shuffled over and switched, with Keith’s hands over Pidge’s ears and Hunk’s over Keith’s, leaving Shiro free to—

But the song’s strength had grown in the few moments that Pidge had heard it, and even a brief moment might be enough to pull them back to the sirens’ call.

And the number of beautiful women had grown, now—three, now four, now  _ five _ , and Lance was still swimming—

She was just about ready to twist free and go after him anyway when one of the sirens flew back out of the water, flailing frantically before crashing back into the water with a tremendous splash.  Another twisted, her beautiful face twisting into something angry and ugly, teeth growing into fangs, deep ridges furrowing in her brow.

And  _ that _ was enough for Pidge to twist away, just for a moment, the scientist in her unable to resist the pursuit of knowledge.

The singing had stopped.

She yanked her hands back from Hunk’s ears, ignoring his momentary yelp of panic and turning to face Shiro.  “It’s okay! You can—right.” Shiro had already dropped Keith’s ears, the arc of his dive into the water even more elegant than Lance’s.

As she watched him speed towards Lance, however, she noticed something strange.

The sirens struggled with someone else in the water, ignoring Lance entirely—and Lance had stopped swimming, treading water with a confused expression on his face.  One by one, the sirens lost their battle with the mystery rescuers, turning and frantically swimming out towards the horizon.

Lance let out a strangled cry as someone who was definitely not Shiro dragged him back towards the shore.  She and Hunk rushed forward to take one of his arms each as a very wet figure hauled him, spluttering, back onto the rocks.

“That was very dangerous!” an unfamiliar voice with a soft, lilting accent lectured.  “Do you humans not know that you’re  _ very _ susceptible to sirens?”

“They were so pretty…” Lance slurred, looking out at the ocean longingly, and the woman who had dragged him onto shore rolled her eyes.

“Yes, and that’s  _ why _ they’re dangerous!  The more desirable you find their forms, the more susceptible—my god, what are  _ those? _  They’re hideous!”

Pidge, Hunk, and Keith all turned to Lance, eyes wide, to see what the woman was talking about, but spotted nothing amiss.

“What’s… what?” Pidge asked, a little dazedly, looking Lance up and down, and Lance’s rescuer pointed one long, elegant, brown finger at him.

“Those are just my legs!” Lance protested, drawing them up to sit on his knees, and Pidge snorted.  She’d  _ told _ him not to wear shorts.

“Well that’s… unfortunate.”  The woman glanced around, and Pidge took the moment to take in Lance’s rescuer.

Long, white hair curled around dark skin, lovely even as it plastered to her face on the surface.  Blue eyes that seemed to flash pink at times, like light reflecting on water, watched them all with concern.  And below her waist…

“You’re a mermaid!” Pidge gasped in delight, scrambling forward.  Below the water, a long, white tail that shimmered pink undulated slowly, keeping the woman afloat.

“Well, yes, of course I am!  Certainly a  _ human _ couldn’t swim this well, and if I were a siren, I’d have eaten your friend here.”  The mermaid lifted her chin. “I am Allura Altea, princess of the Altea tribe.” As three others rose out of the water behind her, one woman and two men, all of them carrying wicked-looking spears, she gestured.  “And this is my entourage. They assisted in the rescue of your friends.”

Pidge beamed, taking the four of them in.  “Oh, that’s so amazing—I’ve always wanted to—so you have tribes?  Are those, like, kingdoms? And what kinds of tails do you guys have?  Are they similar to actual fish? Yours looks kind of like an eel—a really pretty eel, of course!  What about like, octopus merm—”

A large splash interrupted Pidge’s long list of questions, and Allura turned her startled gaze—had it been startled before the splash?  Pidge didn’t  _ think _ so, but she couldn’t really remember—along with Pidge to see a very wet Shiro hauling himself out of the water.

“I didn’t even help,” he said miserably, twisting out of his wet shirt and wringing it out forlornly, then using it to towel at his hair.  Pidge tried not to laugh—especially when he reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and handed it to her.

Soaked, of course, the screen completely black.

“Do you think you can help?” he asked, expression pleading, and Pidge winced, feeling sort of like she was about to start starving a puppy.

“I’ll… try,” she hedged, knowing that it was absolutely toast.  She might be able to pull the pictures off, but other than that, Shiro was out of luck.

“Oh, what’s this?” Allura asked, all semblance of formality forgotten.  She reached out, and Pidge offered it to her, ignoring Shiro’s quiet noise of protest.  “This is… fascinating. Sleek, in a way I’ve never seen… what does it do?”

“Well,” Pidge began excitedly, “it’s called a phone.  What you do, it’s supposed to turn on, and you put in a number and it reaches someone else’s phone who has that number.  And then you can talk. All the way on the other side of the world, if you want.”

“Fascinating,” Allura murmured, turning it over in her hands—which, Pidge noticed with silent glee, were  _ webbed. _  “Why is it not turning on?”

“Well, it can’t get wet, otherwise it gets ruined.”

Allura made an unimpressed noise, dropping it back down onto the rocks.  Pidge gingerly picked it up, inspecting it subtly for cracks. “If it can’t be used underwater, that limits its uses, does it not?  Your planet, it’s almost three quarters water—”

A throat cleared from behind her, sparing Pidge from having to explain the complexities of water and electricity and insulation, and Allura turned to her guard, a young man with brown hair and a serious expression.

“Your Highness,” he said solemnly.  “Are we not here to fulfil your father’s wishes?”

“Oh, yes, of course!”  Allura clapped her hands together delightedly.  “Griffin, you and Kinkade—please secure the perimeter.  Alert Rizavi if you find any more sirens. And as for you… what is your name?”

“Pidge, Your Highness.”  Pidge bowed; at least, she bowed as much as she could while sitting.  “It’s nice to meet—”

“And I’m Lance!” Lance interrupted, doing his best to wedge his way between Pidge and Allura.  “And let me say, you are looking—augh!”

Pidge couldn’t help snorting as one well-placed shove from Keith sent him pitching back into the water.

“Please, continue,” he said, his serious expression reminding Pidge that this was sort of a first contact thing, and she cleared her throat and straightened.  “How can we help, Your Highness?”

“Well.”  Allura smiled graciously at all of them, ignoring Lance completely.  “I’ve been sent by my father to establish relations with humans. We’ve observed from afar, and have seen such… interesting things that we simply couldn’t contain our curiosity any longer.  Do you have anything else like that phone of yours?”

Pidge’s hand crept down to her pocket, about to pull out her phone, when she paused.

“Actually, I’ve got something even better.”

With a grin, she pushed herself up, making her way back towards their little camp and delicately lifting her laptop.  Turning around, she trotted back, presenting it to Allura with pride.

“Wait until you see what this baby can do.”


End file.
